I would like to try this sort of photography myself. I need a better high iso camera though. But maybe it does not matter as much because there is less detail. My fast lenses are f2.8.

Any post processing tips?

Alpi07Registered: Jan 11, 2012Total Posts: 52Country: N/A

I hoped you would told me

This is basically sooc, I just rised a little the contrast in levels moving the middle point to the right.
I didn't even sharpened in camera or in PS since I wold have lost the "foggy" feeling.
My white balance was on auto, thus green result.
I hand held, but I believe with a tripod you could easily lower the ISO and extend the exposure time.

joshimRegistered: Jun 10, 2011Total Posts: 345Country: United States

hey Alpi07,

Sounds like, technically speaking, you know what needs to be improved (WB, etc.)

My advice would be to work on your posture =)

I know that sounds funny, but if you hold your camera properly, you should be able to pull off that shot at 1/10th second without a tripod (my students practiced and pull it off easily all the time now). Also, any reason you were shooting at 1.6 instead of 1.4? If not, drop that to max ƒ-stop. That'll give you 3 1/3 extra stops of light.

You should be able to shoot that same picture at ISO 200 with those changes.

With practice it is possible to hand hold at much slower speeds. While 1/10th of a sec with a 50mm (i.e. 1/5th of fl) might be something that not everyone can pull off well, You could probably have easily pulled off something between 1/25 - 1/40 to get you under the 1,000 ISO mark.

I haven't shot the 5D II ... but with even with my 5Dc or 1D II / II N series ISO 800 is markedly better than above 1600. I might not try and chase ISO 200 at the increased risk of camera shake to handhold @ 1/10, but I'd certainly go for ISO 800 @ 1/30-ish with a 50mm lens.

Alpi07Registered: Jan 11, 2012Total Posts: 52Country: N/A

Thank you for the comments. Unfortunately I am that kind of shooter that when clicks make shake even the ground on which is standing :/ but for sure I can try to improve more.

Would you have any suggestion for the post? I did like the green light, but I understood that it is not acceptable. What else?

joshimRegistered: Jun 10, 2011Total Posts: 345Country: United States

I agree with RustyBug, no reason to really go all the way to 1/10th @ ISO 200. I was just giving an extreme example to show what can be done with good posture.

As for post, it's really up to what your vision for the photo. If you like the green, keep the green. Most might not agree with you (including me), but you're doing this for yourself and not for a client, right?. I would say do some noise reduction and get rid of that CA (chromatic aberration).

If it were up to me? I'd change it to B&W and crop for a more panoramic feel. =)

Interesting shot. I like the black and white version, but it did seem to be cropped a little more than I would go for. In the version below I gave it a different crop, increased the exposure, brought up the shadows further, added a brush stroke of decreased exposure in the dark areas to eliminate some of the noise in them, and then added a little noise reduction (which actually seems to help emphasize the fogginess). It's starting to get a little crunchy, but if you were to do this with the original it wouldn't look as much so.